Former meteorologist takes Saints fandom to new heights

Judging from the decor of William Taylor’s Thibodaux duplex, one would not think the New Orleans Saints was only his second greatest passion.

“Weather is by far my first hobby, and the Saints are second,” said the former meteorologist for radio station KTIB.

However, it is Saints memorabilia that fills his bookshelves and covers his walls from ceiling to floor – posters, lithographs, figurines, pennants, newspaper articles, a signed Morten Anderson jersey.

What separates the 39-year old Taylor from the average Saints fanatic is the 30 years of Saints games recorded on videos and DVDs.

Every week he records the entire Saints game onto VHS tape in the VCR and later transfers the video onto DVD.

“When I started in 1993, I would tape the Saints games off of television, but because I didn’t have a lot of space, I would edit the games down to 25 minutes,” Taylor said. “I threw out the huddles and all the plays I didn’t think mattered. I did that for six years.”

In 2000, a collector in Missouri told Taylor if he wanted to get Saints game tapes from other collectors, he would have to keep his taped games intact.

With that advice and a little luck on the Internet, Taylor has been able to trade for older recordings of complete Saints games.

His first collection of games that predated 1993 came from a friend in New Orleans.

“He asked if I would accept his old set of Saints games that his wife threatened to throw away,” Taylor said. “The 30 tapes he gave me, some of them went back to the mid-1980s. That allowed me to start trading with other people to get more games.”

Taylor does not sell his videos to others. That is illegal since the National Football League and the networks that televised the games own the broadcast copyrights.

Today, his video library goes back to the opening game of the 1977 season, a 24-20 home loss to the Green Bay Packers.

“Because the VCR was not legalized in the United States until 1976, finding intact videos of games prior to that is almost impossible,” Taylor said. “Also, when the BetaMax VCR became available for private home use, the machine cost $800 and one blank cassette tape cost $25. So because of the costs of the tape, many people erased over the tape to reuse.”

Taylor’s video collection is not just limited to Saints games. He records Saints-oriented programs like WVUE’s “Game Plan,” a Saints-based show that features human interest segments and a breakdown of the upcoming game, and WWL’s “4th Down on 4,” which highlights each Sunday Saints game.

Taylor also has videos of all the home games, except for two, played by former Houma-based National Indoor Football League team the Bayou Bucks, and news reports on defunct Professional Indoor Football League team the Louisiana Beast.

Last week was especially busy for Taylor. He recorded as many reports from the 5, 6 and 10 p.m. New Orleans newscasts about the Saints game against the San Diego Chargers in London as he could.

“Because of the uniqueness of the game and I knew there would be special coverage,” Taylor said, “I’m going out of my way to record this other stuff.”

Only twice since he began in 1993, has he been unable to record a Saints game.

The first was in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina knocked out power and he could not tape the last Saints preseason game against the Oakland Raiders.

The other was last month when he missed the Saints season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers due to Hurricane Gustav.

“I do have a backup plan,” Taylor boasted. “I have a friend in New York State who can get me the game off his Direct TV feed if my electricity goes out.”

The one-time host of “Bayou Sports Talk” from January 2003 to July 2004, has become an unofficial historian of the New Orleans Saints franchise.

Taylor designed a Web site, ktibmemories.com/fdl, which was originally built to preserve the history of the radio where he once worked.

On the Web site, there are 40 microphone icons representing 40 years of Saints football (1967-2006). Each icon gives users a sketch of the Saints history in three-minutes or less.

In February 2001, Taylor set out to produce his own one-hour history of the Saints from trying to get a team in New Orleans in 1960 through the 2000 season. But the project got a little out of hand.

“I sat at my electric typewriter to write the script. When I finished typing, I had 26 double-spaced pages of script,” he said. “Then I decided I would make the documentary and how ever long it turned out, that’s what it’ll be. It took me a month to do the entire production and I wound up with a four-hour documentary. Basically it’s my version of “Gone With the Wind.”

Since then, he has added a 65-minute appendix to cover 2001 to 2006.

Taylor has taken his vast knowledge of Saints history and become a minor celebrity.

Once a month he appears on WGNO’s new early morning program “Good Morning New Orleans” to do Saints-related segments.

He will be on the show more often by phone.

“That station just started that show a month ago and WGNO’s sports director Ed Daniels has known me for a while,” he said. “So I just e-mailed him and the station to see if they needed guests, and they did. The only problem is they can only fit me in before 6 a.m.”

He almost didn’t make it to this month’s taping for a segment on Saints trivia. The left rear tire on his car blew out on the way the Metairie studio.

“Luckily no one was using the lane next me and an officer pulled up behind me while I was changing the tire,” Taylor said. “I made it on time, but my clothes were soaked in sweat.”

Born the only son and the third of Billy and Teresa Taylor’s seven children, William has been a Saints fan since age 10 in 1979.

“That was the first full season I tried to watch every game on local television,” he said. “Thibodaux had an advantage of being just far enough out the 75-mile blackout area from New Orleans when the game wasn’t a sellout, and just close enough to Lafayette to pick up all the Saints games on CBS affiliate KLFY channel 10.”

However, he discovered his passion for weather two years earlier. Meteorologists on New Orleans television stations had a big influence on Taylor, especially Nash Roberts.

“His presence on TV was amazing, and he had a lot to do with me going into the field,” Taylor said.

Taylor started collecting Saints memorabilia in 1987 when he got his first regular job while attending Nicholls State University.

Two years later, he transferred to Northeast Louisiana University (today called University of Louisiana-Monroe) and graduated in 1992 with a degree in meteorology.

When he came home from college and landed a job as the meteorologist for KTIB, his memorabilia collecting accelerated.

“I’ve been lucky to some degree with the people I’ve met and the things they have found for me,” Taylor admitted. “Some of this was given to me by people who knew I was going to appreciate it and not turn around and sell it.”

One example is an 8? by 11?-framed contract given to Taylor by Randy Schultz Jr. His father was an original Saints fullback from 1967-68.

Schultz could not find film of his father, so Taylor gave him a couple of highlight films his dad was in. When told they couldn’t exchange money for the films, Schultz gave Taylor his father’s tenure sheet promising he would come back and play for the Saints in 1968 at the salary of $13,000 for a 14-game season.

Taylor’s most rare collectible is a prototype jersey Saints owner Tom Benson commissioned when he first bought the team in 1985.

“This is what he considered changing the uniforms to because blue is his favorite color,” Taylor said. “He had five prototypes made of what the uniforms would look like. This is the one they were leaning towards until they showed it to some of the veteran fans. They said, ‘Oh God, you can’t change the black and gold. We’ll never get used to this.’ That’s why they never changed it.”

Taylor has slowed down the amount the video trading he does. He said he only exchanges videos about once a month.

Today, he co-owns Taylor Lumber with his father. His work schedule reduces the time he has to look for new items to add to his collection, but he has no plans to quit anytime soon.

“I’ve never stopped to think about how much I spent on my collection,” he said. “Since I never married and don’t have kids, I never had a tight budget to follow. I stay within my budget so I don’t miss bills or food.”

At heart, Taylor is still a weatherman. He emails his weather forecast to 50 people everyday. Some get it twice a day; others just want to be notified during a special weather event.

Occasionally, he will call into “Al Carter Live” and give a weather update for an event he’s doing or a friend of his is doing.

He could imagine himself replacing Jim Henderson as the Saints radio play-by-play announcer one day, but no matter how much he cherishes the Saints, there is place in his heart they could never fill.

“When the Saints go into the off-season, I’ll still be looking at the weather,” Taylor said.

Above: William Taylor relaxes in bed surrounded by a small sampling of his Saints memorabilia collection. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF